


Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones (but words still hurt, occasionally)

by TechnoCheese



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Ableism, Ableist Language, Angst, Anxious Toby Smith | Tubbo, Constructive Criticism Welcome, Doxxing, Dream Smp, Dream Team SMP - Freeform, Dyslexia, Gaslighting, Home Alone, Hurt Toby Smith | Tubbo, Hurt/Comfort, Insomnia, Insults, Live Stream, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protective Tommyinnit, R word, Scott Smajor is sassy, Streaming, Threats, Toby Smith | Tubbo Needs a Hug, Toby Smith | Tubbo-centric, Tubbo gets bullied, Tubbo is Tired, Twitch Rivals, Twitter Drama, falling asleep on stream, made up streamer, tubbo is dyslexic, twitch rivals tournament, twitter beef, use of the r word
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:15:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27708890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TechnoCheese/pseuds/TechnoCheese
Summary: When Twitch Rivals approaches Tubbo with an event that has a recently emptied player slot in a team, Tubbo is excited for the opportunity to make a new friend and earn a rather hefty cash prize.When that teammate is a somewhat large CoD streamer brand new to Minecraft, Tubbo is happy to teach them the basics and pick up their slack.When that same teammate and his viewers prove to be unbelievably toxic and leave Tubbo practically cowering at the bottom of his webcam frame, Tubbo wishes he had just streamed Dream SMP like he had planned.When the fanbase of each streamer starts a war on Twitter and content creators on both sides get involved, Tubbo wonders if his streaming career will ever be the same.
Relationships: Toby Smith | Tubbo & Phil Watson, Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit
Comments: 77
Kudos: 534
Collections: Tommy and Tubbo Friendship Supremacy





	1. Red flags abundant

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve accidentally posted this work prematurely like 3 times and lost half of my progress at least twice, but here we are, lol.
> 
> I’ve had this idea for a little while, and haven’t seen too many fics with the same premise, so I figured I’d make my own! If you read this and enjoy it, PLEASE write more like it so I don’t have to write stuff myself lmao
> 
> Note that there will be completely fictional characters, such as “Aiden Slays” and “Suzy Sweet”. These are not modeled after any existing person, and are completely made up.
> 
> I will also be including plenty of intentional spelling errors, as well as mispronounced words. I really wanted to try and portray Tubbo’s speech realistically, and there are a few words he tends to continuously mispronounce. For example, he often says “Genurally” instead of “genuinely” or “generally”. I promise it’s purposeful!
> 
> I really hope you enjoy :)

When Tubbo woke up to a direct message from one of the organizers of Twitch Rivals, he was certainly surprised. After the shenanigans that he, Tommy, Wilbur, and Phil had pulled in their first bingo event, Tubbo was sure that they would be barred from future competitions, though it had been a very entertaining experience.

He opened his phone, and launched Twitter.

> **Twitch Rivals** 3:00pm
> 
> _Hey, Tubbo! Twitch Rivals is hosting a Minecraft event tomorrow at 8:00pm GMT. Unfortunately, a player has dropped out last second, and we need a replacement. We apologize for the short notice, but would you possibly be available at that time? We’ll send more details upon your response._   
>    
> 

Tubbo was certainly intrigued. He had initially intended on streaming Dream SMP around that time, but didn’t have much of a scheme beyond the basic category. He didn’t have college, that was for certain, and he was sure that Tommy wouldn’t mind him not showing up for the stream he was planning tomorrow.

> **Tubbo** 3:13pm
> 
> _I shold be free at that time! Wht is the event about?_
> 
> **Twitch Rivals** 3:16pm
> 
> _Perfect! The basic premise of the competition is that you and your teammate will be given a coordinate, and the player to reach it will find a chest with a second set of coords. That process will repeat until a total of 6 locations are reached, and teams will receive points based on how quickly they find each one. Players will be hosted on separate servers containing the exact same seed, and coordinates will be identical. Essentially, it’s a scavenger hunt.  
> _ _  
> However, the points cannot be earned by the same player twice. This means that teammates must take turns reaching the given coordinates, while the other prepares to receive the next set. Players will be given 3 hours in total to visit every coordinate._
> 
> _A more in depth explanation along with the event guidelines will be emailed to you, but in the meantime, do you have any questions?_

Tubbo read carefully through the paragraphs. He was certainly intrigued, and very excited to be able to showcase his vast knowledge of Minecraft mechanics that are often dropped in favor of playing along with Tommy’s bits. There were so many opportunities for creativity!

> **Tubbo** 3:22pm
> 
> _No I dont thnik that I do! Im happy to give it ago :)_
> 
> _Who is my teem mate?_
> 
> **Twitch Rivals** 3:25pm
> 
> _Your teammate is XxA1D3N_5L4Y5xX, (Aiden Slays), but they also go by just Aiden. They’re predominantly a Call of Duty streamer, but are starting to branch out to Minecraft. You probably know of them already, but we recommend reaching out to them before the event anyway._

Tubbo had absolutely no idea who this person was. Then again, he found himself having immense trouble trying to decipher their name, so there was always the chance that he had just skimmed over it any time it appeared. Regardless, he was always ready to meet new people, and had been trying to as of late with projects like the Offline TV server and Among Us. Maybe they could even introduce each other to their friends and respective games, and grow their channels? Tubbo certainly wasn’t opposed to picking up CoD for a few streams.

> **Tubbo** 3:27pm
> 
> _Awesome, ill shoot them a massage. Thx so much for the opertunity :)_
> 
> **Twitch Rivals** 3:27pm
> 
> _No problem, let us know if you need anything in the future._

Tubbo left a few typo riddled replies to his friends’ tweets before he closed Twitter and sat at his computer desk. He opened his business email, and refreshed until a message from Twitch Rivals appeared.

The event rules were rather standard, containing the expected “be respectful”s and “no hacking”s, but a few, such as “no stream sniping, including through chat, will be tolerated and will result in potential disqualification” were especially noteworthy. With all teams sharing the same seed and coordinates, it could prove to be an issue. However, Tubbo trusted that the creators involved would maintain their integrity.

He continued reading the email, and came across another rule that struck him as peculiar.

”If one teammate drops out of the competition or is otherwise unable to play and a replacement cannot be located, the remaining player may be allowed to continue to play under the exception that every coordinate traveled to will award only 3/4 of the points. This is to both discourage leaving mid event and allow single player teams a chance at continuing without having an advantage over full teams.”

Tubbo certainly pitied any team that may have this rule apply during the event, and immediately understood why they needed him to fill the missing slot. He’d hate for his teammate to have to compete alone.

Finally, he found the prize pool. With 6,000 dollars going to the first place team to split, and steadily decreasing but still quite large amounts to be awarded to lower rankings, anything above 5th place would game changing. Tubbo’s PayPal difficulties were no secret, having to turn off donations and regularly contact their customer service, so he certainly had reason to try his best for himself and his team.

He finished skimming through the rules, and found a link to the event discord. He clicked it, and joined the server.

_ ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ December 2, 2020 ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ _

_→ Swoooosh. **Tubbo** just landed!_

**Tobyツ** _Today at 3:48 PM_  
o/

He grinned at the welcomes he received, some from familiar faces and some he didn’t recognize. It was exciting to have an opportunity to make new friends.  
  


 **HBomb(Teaming with Scott :D)** _Today at 3:50 PM_  
_Hey, Tubbo! It’s definitely a surprise to see you here. Do you have a team yet?_

 **Toby **ツ**** _Today at 3:51 PM_  
_hbomb! it is a suprise haha, im teeming with aiden 5lays i believe :D_

Everyone stopped typing.

Tubbo waited for replies, but oddly enough, the channel remained static. Had he said something wrong?

He skimmed his messages for any particularly awkward typos, but aside from what he thought may have been a misspelling of “teaming”, there wasn’t anything damning.

He lingered for 6 uneasy minutes, before deciding he should probably say something more to dispel the uncanny silence.

 **Tobyツ** _Today at 3:57 PM_  
_rely exited to play against evryone! i reckon were gonna destroy you guys >:)_

 **Smajor(Teaming with HBomb...)** _Today at 3:58 PM  
_ _Oh, Tubbo, sweetie, we’ve gone over this! This is not how you make friends!_

Tubbo chuckled at the response, and scrolled up in the channel to catch up on any information he may have missed. There wasn’t much more than friendly banter and people seeking clarification on event rules, but upon reading a little further, he discovered an interesting message.

_ ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ December 1, 2020 ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ _

~~**Suzy_Sweet(Teaming with A1d3n)** ~~ _Yesterday at 1:32 AM_   
_Unfortunately, I’m going to have to drop out of the event. Most of you guys have been lovely, but I don’t believe that it would be right of me to stay in this team and potentially cause problems for the organizers. I hope that you can find someone more fitting that will create a more watchable dynamic, but I can’t play optimally with Aiden as my partner. So sorry for the inconvenience to the mods, and best of luck to my replacement._

_⎯ Susan476 has left the server ⎯_

Tubbo emitted a thoughtful hum. That wasn’t exactly reassuring. He had never met either of the participants, so he couldn’t make inferences on what had happened behind the scenes, and decided that it wouldn’t be in his place to snoop anyway. It at least seemed to have come to a respectful conclusion, and that’s all that mattered, right?

But to throw away the opportunity to receive such a large prize...

Oh well. Maybe Suzy just didn’t place a high value on monetary gain? Tubbo supposed he couldn’t judge. Different people held different ideals, and he couldn’t blame someone going for modesty.

At the very least, he decided, he should probably attempt to contact Aiden before the event.

Tubbo scrolled through the member list to find his partner, and luckily, he was online! He clicked on his profile to send a message.  
  


** XxA1D3N_5L4Y5xX**

****_This is the very beginning of your legendary conversation with XxA1D3N_5L4Y5xX._

_ ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ December 2, 2020 ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ _

**Tubbo** _Today at 4:11 PM  
_ _hi big man! its rlly nice to meet you. wold you be free to hop into a vc any tim to go over strategies for the competition?_

_i have a few ideas that could deffinetly win us the entire thing :D_

While Tubbo waited for his response, he decided to check to see what his other friends were up to. He exited the twitch rivals discord, and entered his private one. Coincidentally, Tommy, Phil, and Wilbur, and just so happened to be in a voice call. He slipped on his headphones, and joined.

”-I’m telling you, Phil, our mom is canonically a Samsung refrigerator! You fucked a fridge! It’s in the lore now, and there’s nothing you can do to-“

”Oh, hey, Tubbo!” Tommy interrupted.

”Hey, squad! What’s up?” He smiled at Phil’s sigh, and went back to his direct messages to see if Aiden had responded. He was still online, but must not have seen the message yet.

”Well, mate, Wilbur here has decided, for whatever reason, to declare a fucking smart fridge as his biological mother in the Dream SMP lore.”

”Also don’t forget that Sally wasn’t a shape shifter. I screwed a fish to make that fox, Phil.” Tubbo could hear Wilbur’s shit eating grin through the microphone.

”I reckon you’re a wrongen’, Will,” Tommy said. “Anyway, Toby, are you planning on streaming today? I’m not, college is a right dick‘ead and I want to sleep.”

Tubbo had been so preoccupied with the Twitch Rivals event that he had completely forgotten about streaming.

”Ah, yeah, I guess I will. Not really sure if I want to do modded or the SMP. Or both, I guess. I’m feeling a long stream today.”

”Don’t stay up until the ass crack of dawn like you always do. I have something planned tomorrow, remember?”

Oh yeah.

”Ehh... about that. Did you hear about the Twitch Rivals event happening tomorrow?” Tubbo sheepishly offered.

“...Yeah? The weird relay race thing?” Tommy questioned, suspicion threading his voice.

”well, um... they may have messaged me about an hour and a half ago about filling in for a missing teammate. Sorry, big man.”

Tommy groaned dramatically. “Tubbo! How am I going to scam Fundy without you!” Tubbo heard a sigh. ”Oh well. Is there at least a good prize to make up for the short notice?”

Tubbo perked up. “Oh, yeah! First place gets 6,000 dollars to split, which would be 3,000 for both of us.”

While Tommy mumbled about being able to earn that much from primes alone, Phil spoke.

”Both of us? Who’s your teammate?”

”Oh, yeah! I was gonna ask you guys. Has anyone heard of ‘Aiden Slays’? Apparently they’re a big FPS streamer, but I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of him.”

”I haven’t,” Wilbur said. Tommy hummed in agreement. “Are they your partner?” 

“Yep! I sent them a message about tomorrow to try and get in contact. I’m just waiting for an answer back.” He checked the message again. Still nothing, and still online. Maybe he just keeps discord open in a background tab?

Phil still hadn’t said anything.

”What about you, Philza Minecraft? Do you know anything about them?

Tubbo heard him slowly inhale.

”...I do, but I might be mistaken. I don’t want to say anything though, in case I’m wrong and it changes your perception of him before you meet. I’m sure he’s a great fellow.”

Huh. Interesting.

“Oh. Okay?” Tubbo pondered what Phil had said.

Typing was heard in the call. “I googled him. It says ‘ere that ‘Aiden is a 31 year old Call of Duty streamer known for his high skill and ability to claim most of the kills in almost every round he plays’. I’m not going to read his whole ass biography, though,” Tommy stated. Tubbo hummed thoughtfully.

”I’m sure he’ll be lovely. I’ve had a hard time finding people I don’t like. ‘Genurally’, I think that most people who get portrayed badly online are usually pretty nice.” Tubbo was hopeful.

”I just hope I don’t make a bad first impression. I’m not great at meeting new people, I don’t believe...”

He stopped when the call emitted a mixture of scoffs and incredulous laughter.

”Tubbo, man, really? It’s like you rolled an 18 for charisma,” Wilbur said. Tubbo wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but he assumed it was a compliment.

”Toby, what the hell are you saying? You literally got invited to some random tryhard among us lobby, completely mispronounced the biggest player’s name, and now you’re on a giant server playing with 5up for hours with the likes of DisguisedToast and Pokimane. You literally follow Captain Sparkles like a dog and people won’t shut up about you. It’s impossible for people to hate you, Bitch.” Tommy scoffed.

Tubbo was speechless.

”Sorry mate, but I’m going to have to agree,”Phil started, gently. “You make friends with literally everyone you talk to, and I’m almost certain that’s why they picked you to be the replacement. Don’t worry about first impressions, alright?”

Wow. 

Tubbo smiled, relieved. What had he done to deserve friends like this?

”Thanks guys, that means a lot. And Tommy, I’m really sorry for bailing on you, I’m just really excited about the event. I have so many ideas! There’s nether travel, horses, elytra if we can-“ Tubbo was rambling.

”It’s _fine_ , big man, don’t worry,” Tommy chuckled. “Just make it up by winning, alright? And make sure you message one of us if things start to go wrong.”

Tubbo smiled. “Sure thing, Tommy.”

* * *

It was nearing 6:00, and Tubbo needed to prepare his stream. He said his goodbyes and left the VC, and opened Twitter to get his going live tweet ready. He started the stream, and put up his “starting soon” slide.

While he waited for people to join, he opened his discord to ping everyone about the stream. Then, he checked his DMs.

Still nothing from Aiden.

He had to have seen it, right? He’d been online when the message was sent, and for a while after, but he was offline now.

Tubbo decided he’d risk sending another message.   
  


**Tubbo** _ Today at 6:04 PM _  
_Would you be available to VC in 3-4 hours from now?  
  
_

Tubbo was about to go back to his stream, when he saw Aiden’s status change to online. He hesitated.

Then, miraculously, Aiden was typing!

...

Until he wasn’t.

Tubbo waited in case he was just retyping his message, but then, like nothing had ever happened, his status circle turned gray.

”...Huh.” _Was he imagining things?_

He looked back to his stream to see his chat practically yelling his name. Oh yeah, he was unmuted.

Tubbo cleared his throat. “Hey, boys! What’s up!”

He hummed along to his intro music until he had Minecraft booted up. He switched scenes to his screen capture.

”Right, welcome back, chat! I hope you are all doing well. Today! We are going to finally continue filling in the HOLE IN THE OCEAN!” Tubbo looked at the camera and raised his arms in excitement.

”But first, boys, I have a bit of an announcement.” Tubbo opened the dream SMP.

”I know that it’s short notice, believe me, I only found out 3 hours ago, but I’m going to be competing in the Twitch Rivals tournament tomorrow at 8:00PM GMT! Now, if you haven’t heard about this wonderful event, it’s...” Tubbo continued to explain the event’s premise and rules. Chat seemed excited, pogchamps and encouragement scrolling by faster than he could read.

”I do hope you lovely lot will join me for it. I have so many ideas for how we can win, and I KNOW we can snatch that first place prize! And, chat, we get to meet someone new!”

The chat continued to fly past, containing mostly questions and predictions about the mysterious teammate they had yet to hear about.

”Do any of you know someone by the name of ‘Aiden Slays’? Or is it 5-lays? Chat, I’m going to be honest with you, and I hate to ‘wh-omegalol’ the poor guy, but I didn’t hear about them until about 3 hours ago and I’m still not entirely sure how to read their name.” Tubbo lowered his gaze from the camera. “I haven’t spoken to them yet, either, but I’m really excited! Just hope I don’t screw up the first impression,” Tubbo nervously chuckled.

He looked at chat to see their responses.

” _oh, tubbo_...”

” _NOT AIDEN_ ”

” _POG_ ”

“ _oof_ ”

Well, that was certainly interesting.

”Oh, chat, I’m sure it will be _fine_! You guys better be nice tomorrow, alright?” Tubbo pointed at his camera threateningly, before looking back at the game and laughing.

”Anyway, where’s Sam? We need to drain the OCEAN!”

* * *

4 hours later, Tubbo ended stream.

There was still no reply from Aiden.

He was getting worried. His messages had definitely been read, right? Was he being ignored? Was he going to have to go into a huge competition with a partner he had never spoken to? Tubbo sat and weighed his options.

Against his better judgement, he opened the Twitch Rivals general channel.

 **Tobyツ** _ Today at 10:24 PM  
_ _srry for bothering, but has any one seen @A1D3N_5L4Y5 today? trying to get in contact :)_

And like he had always been there, the man of the hour appeared.

 **Aiden(Teaming with Tubbo)** _ Today at 10:25 PM  
_ _Hot damn, you’re clingy. Chill out man, I haven’t seen your messages yet._

_And change your name. I thought you would catch on by now._

Oh no. So much for a good first impression.

Was that really worthy of a reply like that? Had he screwed up? Surely he wasn’t being serious. 

He saw a couple of people start typing, probably to agree, but they stopped as soon as Tubbo started to reply.

 **Tubbo(Teaming wtih A1D3N)** _ Today at 10:26 PM  
_ _Im sorry big man, i cold have sworn i saw you typing and online. i was just starting to get worried_

Maybe Aiden really hadn’t seen the messages? Tubbo pondered the possibility of himself seeing things.

_its rly nice to finaly meet you, tho :) would you be able to VC soon? im planning to go to bed soon, streaming has me draned, but I’d be up to talk for a wile if you want_

**Aiden(Teaming with Tubbo)** _ Today at 10:28 PM  
_ _I never typed anything. You’re definitely making stuff up. And I’ll call you when I want to, so stop bugging me. God knows your awful typing would benefit from it, assuming you actually speak better than you write._

 **Awesamdude(Teaming with Urso)** _ Today at 10:29 PM  
_ _No need to be hostile, man. Let’s all keep it chill :)_

 **Smajor(Teaming with HBomb...)** _Today at 10:29 PM_  
 _^_

 **Aiden(Teaming with Tubbo)** _ Today at 10:30 PM  
_ _Just getting my point across. Not my problem if people take it personally._

Tubbo blinked owlishly at the screen. He appreciated Sam and Scott trying to defend him, but he was sure that Aiden wasn’t trying to be rude. It was probably Tubbo’s fault for being invasive with the frequent messaging ( _it was only a few messages though, right?)_ , and he had thick enough skin to not be _too_ bothered.

Regardless, he didn’t think there was much point in continuing the conversation. With a yawn, he powered off his computer, and prepared to go to sleep.

He was sure it would all be resolved tomorrow.


	2. A rude awakening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT 12/16/20: Chapter 3 is going to be late! Unfortunately this is the last week of the grading period, and I am incredibly busy trying to fix my grades and study for exams. I am so sorry for the insubstantial update, but I figured I’d announce this somehow. I hope everyone can hold out for a little longer!
> 
> Another chapter, here we go! It looks like updates are going to be at least close to weekly so far, and hopefully sooner if I can squeeze them between class work. I really hope you enjoy!
> 
> I finished writing this on very little sleep and very late at night, so I may have missed a few typos. Feel free to point them out :)
> 
> Note that this chapter contains heavy amounts of swearing and ableist language.

Tubbo awoke to the discord incoming call tone.

_What the hell?_

He held his pillow over his face and groaned. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with the shrill buzz assaulting his eardrums. He curled further into himself and tried to ignore it.

Miraculously, it stopped.

Tubbo breathed a sigh of relief, and tried to go back to sleep. He began to relax in his pitch black room.

Then, like rain in hurricane season...

It was back.

He gave up on returning to dreamland, and threw off his blankets to face the icy air. Tubbo sat at the edge of his bed, legs hanging over. Reaching over to grab his phone, he checked the time.

4:23 AM.

Why was Aiden Slays ringing him at 4:23 AM.

Tubbo pressed his palms into eyes in anticipation, and accepted the call.

”...Hello?” Tubbo croaked out, holding the phone to his ear.

”Holy shit, took you long enough! Why the hell were you ignoring my calls?!” Tubbo winced, and held the phone away.

”...I-I don’t... I... _what_?” Tubbo squinted at his lock screen. 3 missed discord calls from A1D3N_5L4Y5.

” _Surely not..._ ” he mumbled.

”Are you fucking high? I told you I was going to call, and you couldn’t answer after all of the begging you did for it?”

Tubbo was awestruck. What was this guy’s problem?

”Huh? No, I’m not...why would-” Tubbo sighed, and covered his eyes with a hand. He was too tired to argue. “...Sorry, big man. I was asleep. Could we continue this call in the morning?”

Aiden scoffed. “No, you wanted to call as soon as possible, so we’re calling. Suck it up.”

 _‘It’s literally four in the morning’_ remained unspoken. Tubbo had a vague feeling that Aiden knew, anyway.

He might as well use any chance to discuss strategies that he can. He had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn’t get many more opportunities.

So, with a deep exhale and a near silent yawn, Tubbo began.

”Alright. Okay. Just to start with, how much do you know about Minecraft, and when was the last time you played?” Tubbo held his head in his hands, elbows resting on his knees, to prevent himself from falling forward in slumber.

”If I’m being totally real with you, the game is cringe as hell. I think I might’ve played it a year or two after it came out, but I started playing again about a week ago because you fuckwits on the Dream SMP have made it popular for some reason. Wish there was a less annoying way to grow my channel, because I can’t go two seconds on Twitter without some fourteen year old white girl replying to my tweets.”

Oh, boy. There was a whole lot to unpack there.

But, alas, the bags under Tubbo’s eyes and his heavy limbs refused to let him disagree.

”That’s- thats not- ...Okay. Would you happen to watch any Minecraft YouTubers or streamers, like Mumbo Jumbo or Dream?” _Please say yes please say yes please say-_

 _“_ Buddy, I know you’re a literal fetus, but I’m not gonna go around watching man children play a game for little kids in my free time. Especially not Dream, holy shit is that man and his fanbase annoying.”

Tubbo was ready to hang up and pass out right then and there. He said farewell to any chance of Aiden having an understanding of Minecraft mechanics.

Oh well. He’d just have to pick up the slack.

”Okay, big man.” Tubbo spoke very carefully. “For the event, I’m thinking that it wouldn’t be a bad shout for you to head to the first coordinate while I prepare better methods of transportation at spawn. That way, you can get a head start and go straight to the coordinate, kill yourself once you find it, and be teleported right back with me so that we can switch out.”

Tubbo could almost hear the cogs turning in Aiden’s head. He was quiet for longer than Tubbo thought he had been since the call started. Finally, he spoke.

”Why the hell would we need to take turns? That sounds like a terrible plan. We should just both go for different ones at the same time, and if the next coordinate is close to the previous one, why wouldn’t the same person go for it?”

Tubbo slid his face up from his hands. He blinked.

There was no possible way this could go worse.

“Did you read the rules for the event?” Tubbo droned, already expecting the answer.

There was a tense beat of silence.

”How about you answer my fucking question?”

No way.

No fucking way.

Tubbo looked up to the ceiling in prayer, lifting his knees to his chest, combing his fingers through his hair as he tried not to laugh at the hilarity of it all.

His partner, who had been part of the competition for weeks, who’d needed a replacement teammate a day before the event, who was already being predicted deadweight...

Had not read the event rules.

It was too early for this.

He took a deep breath, and released it. This was fine. He could do this.

”Buddy, I’m going to have to ask you to _please_ read through the event guidelines,” Tubbo started, exhausted. “I’m telling you, most of your questions will be answered there better than I could possibly do it here. All of them, even.”

”Alright, smart ass,” Aiden sneered almost immediately, “How ‘bout you open up the rules and read to me where, specifically, it says we can’t just do it my way? See who’s fucking right then.”

Tubbo blinked incredulously.

”Wh- it’s not a competition, big man. All you have to do is open your E-Mail-“

”Well, do it if it’s so fucking easy. I wanna hear you realize you’re wrong, because why the hell would they make a rule that stupid?”

Tubbo sat frozen, hands stilled atop his head, phone resting on his knees. His eyebrows furrowed further.

”Why would I- surely not-“

”Well? Are you gonna do it? I’m taking this time out of my schedule to talk to you, like you begged me to do all day. I’m five seconds from hanging up, so you better pull up those rules, dumbass.”

”Why can’t-?“

“ _Four_ ”

”What did you-?”

” _Three“_

”Are you seriously-?!”

” _Two-_ “

”Alright! I- I’ll read it!”

So, incredibly confused as to _why_ a 31 year old man needed a teenager to read for him other than for his own satisfaction, Tubbo picked up his phone and opened his business email.

With a whopping three and a half hours of sleep, he tapped the message from Twitch Rivals, and narrowed his eyes at his screen. He scrolled to the paragraph he was searching for.

“Points can- cannot be earned by th-the twice- the same player twice.” Tubbo sluggishly squinted at the text. “This teamma- this means that t-teammates must finding- take turns finding-“

“Woah, woah, woah, are you having a fucking stroke!?” Aiden exclaimed.

Tubbo looked up from the screen. Oh, yeah. He’d yet to explain that.

”No, big man, I’m just dyslexic. Nothing serious, I just need some time to-“

Tubbo was interrupted by bitter cackling.

”’ _Nothing serious?’_ The hell do you mean?! They paired me with a fucking illiterate! You can’t read!”

Tubbo floundered, mouth continuously opening and closing. It really wasn’t that big of a deal, right?

”I-I promise, it’s usually not that bad. I’m just kinda tired and-“ 

“No, you have to be kidding.” Tubbo heard the squeak of a chair, and Aiden’s voice became more distant. “They did not just team me with a fucking vegetable. I’m about to lose six-thousand dollars to a whole ass _retard_!”

Tubbo’s breath hitched.

The tension was almost palpable through their speakers.

After a beat, Tubbo timidly spoke.

”Big man, i-its not really a huge deal to me, but I would really be careful with that word tomorrow.” He prayed that Aiden couldn’t hear the waver in his voice.

”Or fucking what? I’ll call you what you are, and it’s not my problem if people can’t handle it. Bunch of pussies.”

They were silent. Tubbo tried to comprehend the past few minutes, thoughts moving as if through molasses.

Finally, Tubbo heard Aiden’s chair sink once again.

”If you’re gonna keep sitting there twiddling your thumbs, I’m fucking leaving to go sleep. You better be a lot more respectful tomorrow, capeesh?”

How could he possibly respond to that?

Tubbo so desperately wanted to go back to sleep and forget this conversation ever happened. His eyes strained at his phone screen as he tried to swallow the lump in his throat.

He no longer felt like discussing strategy.

“...Alright,” Tubbo mumbled. “Just... don’t forget to be ready for the event by about seven so that we can check in.” His words slurred, energy depleted, and audibly defeated.

“You should be the one worrying about not being ready, what with you sleeping through my calls and all. Go fuck off and learn to read or something, idiot.”

Before Tubbo could respond, Aiden let the call.

Tubbo stared at his phone, and blinked.

_What the Hell just happened?_

He shifted back onto his bed, and slowly laid down. He released the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.

What he wouldn’t give for that to have just been another 4:00 AM recording session with Tommy.

Tubbo was _dreading_ the next day.

Three whole hours, at bare minimum, on a call with that... monster.

On a livestream.

For everyone to watch.

Why was he doing this, again? Was it really worth the degradation? Interrupting Tommy’s planned bit?

Tubbo continued to ponder the possibility of just dropping out of the competition, leaving Aiden to fend for himself. He pulled his blanket back around his body, holding them tight to stave off the cold.

Needing a distraction, Tubbo opened Twitter, and scrolled through his timeline.

He replied to some of his friend’s tweets, searching for some sense of normality. Unsurprisingly, the replies filled with several variations of “Tubbo, go to sleep!”. He couldn’t say he disagreed.

As Tubbo continued looking, he began to seriously consider letting the mods know that he couldn’t make it. The rest of his family was leaving the house in a few hours to go on a trip. Maybe he could just tag along and use them as an excuse to bail?

Then, Tubbo found Twitch Rival’s most recent tweet.

**Twitch Rivals ◎** @TwitchRivals ‧ 6h

_EVENT UPDATE: @TubboLive will be replacing @Suzy_Slays in tomorrow’s competition. _  
  
_Be sure to tune in at 8:00pm GMT/3:00pm EST to see your favorite creators compete for a top prize of 6,000$!_

Any hope of being able to slip by unnoticed by the public quickly flushed away.

Tubbo couldn’t be too disappointed, though, when he remembered the massive prize pool. Surely they could pull through, right? Even if he didn’t manage to steal first place, it was almost guaranteed that they would receive some compensation.

Regardless, Tubbo decided he’d done enough scrolling, and plugged in his phone beside his bed. He stared up at the void of his unlit room, practically pleading for sleep to overtake him.

He sighed.

It really had gone pear shaped, hadn’t it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what do you guys think so far? Comments fuel me to keep writing, and I would really appreciate criticism! Where do you think the story will go next?
> 
> Please drop a Kudos if you enjoyed :)

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter! Please do me a favor and drop a kudos if you enjoyed, and definitely leave feedback in the comments. I am 100% open to criticism, so if you think I can write or portray a character better, please let me know! This is my first time writing these guys.
> 
> The next few chapters should start to really pick up pace.
> 
> The first chapter took me an entire week to complete, but that’s mostly because I spent a lot of it learning how to format and use work skins. The other chapters should come a little quicker, hopefully. Please let me know what you thought of how I formatted the social media sites! I tried to make it as close to Twitter and discord as possible :)


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